In an article that recently appeared in The Industry Standard called "Wooing the Web Vote" the director of national campaigns for Americans for Tax Reform, Ron Nehring, stated that "Internet users are the soccer Moms of the 2000 election". He went to explain that "just as soccer Moms were the constituency everyone was trying to reach in the 1996 election, Internet users will play the same role this year."
For the first time in American politics, almost all presidential candidates have adopted official 'internet' policy platforms and many have even hired specialist 'internet' advisors. Top among the issues that presidential hopefuls from all political camps are using to reach out to internet users on is the burning question of whether to tax the Internet that has dominated headlines recently following the heated debates at the public hearings of the Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce. Other 'internet' issues such as internet privacy, encryption export restrictions, child pornography laws and the Microsoft anti trust case are also seen as high on the internet users agenda.
Critics and traditionalists are quick to point out that none of these 'internet' issues ranks alongside traditional election deciding issues such as economic depression, jobs, war, or income taxes. But it seems that many of the candidates themselves, and their campaign machines, are bucking the trend of traditional American politics by giving significant airtime to 'internet' issues. Republican Senator John McCain is running television ads in New Hampshire promoting his 'no net taxes' platform in the run up to the forthcoming primary in that state.
At a recent GOP presidential hopefuls debate in Michigan, the lone state which has so far taken a hard line against internet taxes, the vexed question of whether to tax the internet was one of the main topics of the debate. While the opinions expressed at that debate were divided, it was clear that every candidate had an opinion on the question.
There are a number of reasons why 'internet' issues are such a hot commodity in this year's presidential election campaign, starting with the significant amount of money that Silicon Valley is pumping into candidates' campaign funds. But the main reason is that the internet, and electronic commerce in particular, is so pervasive in the demographic groups that are most likely to have an opinion and most likely to have their vote influenced by a candidate's position on issues such as internet taxes and privacy.
It is for this reason that Ron Nehring has predicted that internet users will be the 'soccer moms' of the 2000 presidential election and it seems that at this stage most of the candidates agree with him. While presidential candidates hold widely differing views on issues such as internet taxation, it is clear that all of them are aware of the need to not alienate this year's 'soccer moms' by not acknowledging the importance of 'internet' issues in this campaign.
A recent report by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers said that 'e-business' is changing the way companies do business to the extent that we will soon be forced to drop the 'e' and get back to doing business. Perhaps this year's US Presidential campaign will tell us if that bridge has already been crossed in politics.
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